


Fineshrine

by PSIDontKnow



Series: Knitting Lace out of Lashes [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Aesthetic AU, Alternate Universe, Anyways, Gen, OCs are once again the lions, iTS BACK BABY
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-08
Updated: 2016-08-08
Packaged: 2018-08-07 13:39:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7716856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PSIDontKnow/pseuds/PSIDontKnow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>{Let's go and Steal some Flowers}<br/>-------------------------------------<br/>In the Forest, one leaves at Dawn, heart in hand and head heavy.<br/>In the Ocean, one says goodbye to family at Dusk, with a small feeling that it could be the last.<br/>On the Mountain, one walks familiar pathways that suddenly seem strange in the Night.<br/>(Something is coming, and three more can feel it.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Pinnacles and Shrines

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from Fineshrine by Purity Ring, as is the chapter titles! This part is really jerky, as I had issues with the younger kids' characters ;;

\---{Katie  
"Altea Isle's geography is astounding, miraculous, and nigh impossible. A singular mountain with no signs of any sort of volcanic activity, surrounded on one side by a forest that brushes right up against a desert, a sea inlet completing the triangular shaped island." Katie Holt is three and sitting with her father and brother as her father tells them both of this. Sam Holt is an excitable man, with more PHDs than he can count and a love of anything unexplained. It's why he turned down an offer to teach at a prestigous school, instead moving his son and then pregnant wife to a small town on the edge of the Arusian Forest.  
"There's been sightings of strange, lion-like creatures on all parts of the island for years, with different descriptions that vary on the location. It seems like all of these creatures are trying to prevent anyone from going near the mountain itself." He taps an image of the map on the cork board in front of the trio, turning to look at his son and daughter with a grin.  
"Our plan is to make peace with these creatures, to know more about them, and to document it, got it team Holt?"  
"Got it Dad!"  
\---------------------------------------------------  
Despite Sam's enthusiasm, he doesn't try to venture into the forest until Katie's sixth birthday. He takes both her and Matt with him, each of them carrying their own packs and cameras as Sam babbles on about native species. Katie's not paying much attention to her father, instead tracking the light around her, mentally noting the patterns it makes through the trees. Neither her father nor brother notice when she stops walking behind them, both continuing on on the path as she moves away from it, the flash of a tail luring her deeper.  
She thinks it's a cat, but the tail is a deep green that would almost look like a vine if not for the movement of it, and it's strange enough that she follows it. Her little hiking boots are good for the treck, but the leggings she wears keep catching sticks and brambles until she stumbles into a clearing. It's an almost perfect circle, and she tilts her head up, up, up, looking at the blue, blue sky and thinking of the Shimmer Shimmer Shine people her father had once told her and Matt about. There's not too much time to dwell on that before she notices movement, notices a little stone and wood shrine in the middle of the clearing, covered in moss.  
On top of it sits the strangest person she's ever seen.  
They're really laying across it, head pillowed in arms that look like barkless trees, leaves clustered on their head to look like hair. Their legs are not human in any way, looking almost like the haunches of a cat but for the moss green fur covering them.  
"Hello Little Human." They hum, and their voice is many layered, light, like they're laughing at a joke Katie doesn't know. She doesn't like that, doesn't like not knowing, and steps closer, tiny hands gripping tighter to her backpack straps.  
"Hello. Who are you?" The creature stretches languidly, revealing the lower half of their face, a grin of sharp teeth and their tail lashing behind them.  
"I am Prin, Guardian of these forests, who are you?" There's an overwhelming sense of calm and rightness in the air around them, a feeling that almost feels like a warm hug on a cold day, and Katie grins back at Prin.  
"I'm Katie and I'm going to be the best Paranormal researcher ever!" The words are said with all the confidence and self belief a child can muster, and Prin grins wide, showing their needle teeth that Katie thinks look like her cat's teeth.  
"Well then Katie, you should proabably begin looking then. I can show you some of the paranormal, if you like."  
\----------------------------------------------  
When the sun begins to set, Katie walks towards the edge of the forest, one hand holding onto Prin's claw tipped one, the other holding a good sized piece of moss that changes colours and smells with emotions. She's happy, so happy to have made a new friend, and even as Prin stops at the edge of the path and sends her onwards with a pat on the back to her frantic family, the moss is a content teal and smells of her favorite kiwi koolaid.  
\---------------------------------------------  
\---------------------------------------------  
\---{Lance  
The ocean has always been his home.  
Lance is not even a year old when he first sees the ocean and he takes to it like a fish. If there's time, or even if there's not, he'll beg anyone to take him to the beach once he's old enough to speak. There's something about the expance of the ocean that feels like home to him, and he doesn't ever want to leave it.  
When he's eight, he drowns.  
Lance is a small kid, all gangly bones and baby fat cheeks, and it's far too easy for him to get stuck in a rip tide, to be drug underneath without hope of ever rising back to the surface. It's panic inducing, seeing the sunlight just out of reach, his greatest love turning against him, and he's sure that if he was above water, there'd be tears pouring from his eyes. It's only when he gives up, when the edges of his vision are blurring does he feel arms around him, see a flash of pearls.  
Then everything is black.  
\------------------------------------------  
This place is not real, his feet on the water of fountains that raise into the starry sky, and Lance meets the eyes of a lion. It's teeth are pearls and there's fish swimming in the parts of it's body where it is not frozen. He blinks and it's the most beautiful person he's ever seen standing across from him instead, ice for flesh and fish swimming in the waters of their hair. There's a flash of pearl teeth as they smile, bending over at the waist to see eye to eye with Lance.  
"Do you love the waters?" This person's voice is smooth and cool, just a little rough, a cool breeze over the ocean on a summer's day.  
"More than garlic knots and Manny's gameboy." He answers honestly, in awe of this sparkling person, hand raising to rub along the smooth ice of their cheek without fear.  
"That is good little one, do you want to become one with them?" They lean their head into Lance's hand, purring softly like a content cat, and he nods. Where would he be without the water? It's always called to him and now he can go home, home like the feeling when his mom hugs him and he's told he's done good. As soon as he nods, he knows, this is Lily, this is his Guardian, guardian of the waters, and he smiles broadly, kissing both of Lily's cheeks like his Mama does before she leaves for work.  
"I gotta wake up, but I'll see you soon Lily."  
\-------------------------------------------  
He wakes in the hospital later, his whole family there and bruises blooming beautifully across his chest from someone performing CPR on him. Lance had never been so happy to be reamed by his mother, laughing and crying after she was done telling him that he was 'grounded until the second coming.' He's managed to get crushed underneath his family all trying to hug him at once, and once they release him from their hold, he rasps out the question on his mind.  
"Can I go swimming after I get out of here?"  
\----------------------------------------------  
\-----------------------------------------------  
\---{Hunk  
Hunk's family has always lived in two.  
One part near the waters, one part near the mountain.  
Unlike Desert Town and Arus, which were far removed from the mountain, Kararalo spread from the surf to the mountain, a few houses scattered on the actual rock face. Hunk's grandmother had always told him that their family had a sacred duty, that the elders were to live on the mountain, to be come close to it, so that when they were laid to rest on it, their love of humanity would stay in the ground. He had never known what his grandmother meant, why their family needed to make sure to keep the calming mountain loving, not until his uncle's body had been returned to the family after a visit to Desert Town. He'd always said his mother and the rest of the islanders were just supersticious, that it was all small town hokum.  
Unlike the bay, the mountain face facing out, and Kararalo between them, the desert did not love humanity. He never forgets this lesson, keeps it held close to his heart when he's six and watching his uncle that made him little cars from wood being lowered into the ground.  
Hunk is seven when he runs away from his grandmother's house, running away from his parents' talks of how he needs to stop insisting on the "stupid" name he had chosen for himself. There's tears pouring down his cheeks as he runs up the mountain, up the old path that was only ever used to pay respect to the spirits that lived there. He runs until the path is too jagged for him to run anymore, plops himself down on a large rock, and bawls his eyes out. It's not pretty, it's loud in the way that only children crying can be, snot and tears pouring down his face, cheeks turning red and his wails broken up by hiccups. He's so caught up in crying that he doesn't notice the large cat that curls around the boulder he's sitting on until he's wound himself down into sniffles.  
"Do you feel better now?"  
Hunk screeches at the voice, nearly falling off of his rock onto the ground as the cat speaks, lifting its head and watching him with yellow eyes. Its much bigger than any cat he's seen, fluffy and the size of a Great Dane, but the fact it had just spoken to him was the biggest surprise.  
"Are you alright child? I did not mean to startle you." It speaks again, voice deep and rumbling, reminding Hunk of the waves crashing against cliffs, and he nods.  
"That is good." The cat stretches - yawning wide and giving Hunk a horrifying look at long fangs - before settling back down, resting its head on massive paws. Hunk sits there, just staring at the cat and sniffling, before cautiously resting a hand on it's head, scratching softly behind the ears. A grin threatens to split his face when the cat begins to purr loudly, tilting it's head into Hunk's hand.  
"My name's Hunk, what's yours?"  
"I am Amaret. But you may call me Ama." The boy hums for a moment, mulling over the names and still scratching behind the great cat's ears.  
"Ama is a good name."  
\----------------  
Later, Hunk walks back to his Grandmother's house, happy though his rear hurts from sitting on rocks too long. It's become dark out and his parent's car is gone when he knocks on the door. He recieves an ear full of scolding and a plate full of his favorite foods when he gets inside, and, when he tells his Grandmother of Ama, she grins.  
"The mountain has chosen you. You have a good, pure, heart, Hunk, and the spirits can see that." She wraps him in a hug that smells like rock dust and ocean spray and he can't help but grin and cry so hard his face hurts.

  



	2. Grateful Gauze

Chapter 2 Grateful Gauze

Katie spends all her time with Prin, learning what she can.  
She learns of their siblings, of the creatures that live on the isle. Learns of the Princess, though Prin never takes her to see this Princess.  
"Rose would kill us if any of us brought a human to see her." They sniff, indignant before adding - " She seems to think that her little cub is the only one that should be allowed."  
Katie learns about herself, that she and Prin are alike, that the entire concept of gender is sort of a ridiculous thing and she has to avoid crinkling her nose everytime her parents call her a girl. She learns how to defend herself, how to talk a brownie down from killing her, learns how to reprogram anything and everything in between learning about the forest. She spends eight years learning and learning and learning until she's yearning.  
Her visits from Matt stop. Her brother no longer comes home from his dorm to tell her stories of Takashi Shirogane, roommate extrodinaire, to tell her the horror of living in the dorms, though he'd chosen to do so himself to gain a sense of freedom. He no longer comes home and three days later, neither does her father. It takes another three days before it's plastered all over the news.  
Samuel Holt, Matthew Holt, Takashi Shirogane. MISSING  
She'd cry like her mother, but it's not in her blood, not in her nature to turn grief into tears, not when Prin has been restless for weeks. Katie has never been one for stillness, she needs to move, needs to know, and it's this need that leads her to pack a bag, to walk into the forest in the middle of the night, against Prin's direct advice. They're quickly at Katie's side, forgoing their more human shape in the night.  
"What are you doing here, Pigeon?" The moss green lion asks as they pad along with her to the familiar, well worn, path to their Shrine. She almost smiles at the nickname - one that only Prin uses, that se'd earned after she had jumped off their shrine trying to reach a tall branch - but there's too much fear-turned-anger in her heart for it.  
"My father and brother are missing." Katie's voice is flat, rough from angry tears that had slipped out while she was crying, while she was taking out her contacts and replacing them with her spare glasses that matched Matt's  
"Yes."  
"You know who took them?" She stops to look at them, to stare into eyes that both reflect the pale moonlight and glow faintly of their own magic.  
"Yes."  
"Take me to them."  
"No." She turns back around and keeps walking, this time off the path.  
"I'll find them myself then." It only takes a moment for Prin to launch themselves in front of Katie, teeth bared in a snarl that prompts no response from the teen.  
"I'll take you to them but - not now. The Galra - the ones who took them - would eat you alive. They normally don't kill humans, but the will kill you." The fur on Prin's back stands on end, like they're angry, that's what they're trying to show Katie, but their voice reeks of an underlying fear.  
Katie doesn't have time for fear or caution.  
"What stops them from killing my family then?!" She snarls back at them, teeth bared in a blunt, pale imitation of Prin's expression.  
"They're not a Guardian! Not like you. They would take you apart and put you back together wrong just because the Galra hate the Princess and my family!" They stare at each other a moment longer, tension practically sparking in the air as the wind begins to kick up around them.  
"When?" Katie's voice is a harsh whisper, tears that she'd been holding back for a week finally threatening to spill over.  
"Two years. Something is coming, but it's slow." Prin relaxes, moving closer to Katie to butt their head against her side. "I promise though, in two years time, we will find your family."  
\--------------------  
Lance and Hunk find each other in middle school, two awkward kids in the same grade despite a one year difference in age, and they immediately bond. Lance cheers Hunk up and Hunk keeps Lance from doing anything too stupid, a perfect harmony for the two of them. They stick together through all of their embarassing phases, closer than close, sharing every secret from the fact that Lance cannot apply eyeliner to save his life - not even in his MCR phase - and Hunk has an "anime Waifu" pillow.  
Neither know that the other is bonded to one of the guardians until they've been friends for six years, until Lance drags Hunk to the beach at midnight one summer.  
"Dude, you had better not be trying to shoot off bottle rockets again. The last time you got caught, we were both grounded forever." Despite his compaints, Hunk is still going along with him though, hand held tightly by both of Lance's. They're nearly running by the time they get to the water, both laughing because they're alive and it's late, moon hanging heavy in the sky, the warm summer air and Lance's anticipation making Hunk just as excited as his friend.  
"Just wait here, yeah? I want you to meet someone." Lance finally lets go of his hand then, his grin faltering for a second before it grows wide again. He doesnt think anything of it to run barefoot out into the surf, leaving Hunk with the waves lazily lapping at his feet.  
"LIIIIILLLLYYYYYY!" Lance yells the name when the water is up to his knees and soaking into his capris, hands cupped around his mouth, and Hunk starts at the loudness.  
"Dude! What the heck?! We're gonna get in trou - " He's cut off by someone rising from the water -seemingly forming of the water - and smoothly picking up Lance to hugging him. Hunk is just gaping at the display, jaw low enough that there's a serious danger of a hermit crab crawling into his mouth as Lance is squeezed tight and cooed over by this obviously not human person. Their hair is made from the water, floating like picture's he's seen of liquids in zero G, breaking and reforming around their pointed ears and strangely Greco-Roman attire, and their skin is blue!  
"Oh!! My boy is back! I was worried that you had forgotten me!" This "Lily" laughs, voice suprisingly deep, and Lance laughs back, happy in this hug like he is in his mother's.  
"I could never forget you Lils. I brought Hunk to meet you this time though!" Lance is placed down with this declaration, Lily turning his glowing yellow eyes on Hunk. He's being judged, he knows he is, and the boy straightens his back, staring straight ahead with his heart in his throat. It doesn't last long, the nervousness, because there's a familiar presence in the back of his mind, the warm tickly feeling that he gets when Ama looks at him. It's different though, there's less of the smooth steady feeling of the earth at his back, something mercurial and deep there instead.  
He doesnt get long to think on this before Lily is walking out of the water and wrapping him up in a damp, cold hug.  
"Oh! You're Ama's cub! You're adorable! I didn't realize that Lance's Hunk was Ama's too!" Lily coos in his ear, pressing a small kiss to his cheek before letting him go.  
"Who - Wha - Hunh?" Hunk gestures between between Lance and Lily, both of whom were wearing matching grins, though Lance's is a bit confused.  
"Ama, hunh? Isn't that your big brother Lily?"  
"Yes! The guardian of the mountain, he's very nice to hug, though he doesn't let me punch Rose as often as I would like." Lily's hair is ever shifting and Hunk is a little stunned to realize that there is, in fact, tiny brightly coloured fish swimming in it. He wants to reach out and grab one, to see if the water-hair would come with it, until he realizes that this is Lily, whom Ama had refered to off handedly as his "troublesome brother" in a sort of fond voice that Lance reserves for his younger siblings.  
"It's nice to finally meet you."  
\-----------------------------  
Life in Kararalo is quiet after that, the news reports from two years before about the missing students and teacher from over in Arus tapering off finally. Lance wants to feel bad about that, his bit of relief, but he doesn't want their faces hanging over his head when he and Hunk begin their new semester over there in the fall. There's something else though, something that's been buzzing through him since he took Hunk to meet Lily, like something has clicked into place.  
"You've been feeling it too?" Hunk asks when he finally tells him a week later, a relived look washing over his face. "I thought it was just me, but it feels like - Like I need to go back up the mountain. Like we need to find Ama and Lily."  
"Yeah. Yeah." Lance breathes out, relieved that Hunk understands this, and he grabs a hold of his hand as he comes up with an idea. "Let's do it!"  
"What?"  
"Let's get Lily, let's get Ama, let's find out what's going on!" Lance is grinning, the same grin that he wore when setting off bottle rockets on the beach and making a dare he knew he would lose, a grin that is full of recklessness and love of life. Hunk personally thinks that this is a bad- so, so, bad - idea, but he can't ever say no to that face.  
Three days later, they're walking up the mountain path, away from Hunk's grandmother's home.  
==================================

In the Forest, one leaves at Dawn, heart in hand and head heavy.  
In the Desert, one leaves in the Day, burning with need to fufill, to protect.  
In the Ocean, one says goodbye to family at Dusk, with a small feeling that it could be the last.  
On the Mountain, one walks familiar pathways that suddenly seem strange in the Night.  
A curl of smoke, the jingle of bone chimes and the curl of a cat's tail.

In the Sky, one comes home.

**Author's Note:**

> "Tyr, why did you make a whole new chapter just for a time skip?"  
> "Because fk space cop"  
> Seriously though, thank you to all of you who have stuck with this silly AU so far! The next part is the super duper juicy part, AKA MEETING ALLURA AND CORAN!!! Also, getting everyone together, which is gonna be p rad. All of your kudos and kind reviews are what made me strive to continue writing this, so thank you all from the bottom of my heart!  
> Posted once again by [ellisfifellis](https://www.archiveofourown.org/users/ellisfifellis)  
> Hit me up on Twitter here:[ @PSIDontKnow ](https://twitter.com/PSIDontKnow?s=09)
> 
> Also, @Silicon-Corpses drew both [ Mana ](https://twitter.com/silicon_corpses/status/757104619751297024?s=09) and [ Keith protecting Shiro ](https://twitter.com/silicon_corpses/status/757104351701704704?s=09) so go give them some love!


End file.
